Saifudin re-emerges

Press, 9 February 1978, Page 7

Saifudin re-emerges

NZPA-Reuter Peking The former political chief of China’s strategic Sinkiang region, Mr Saifudin, has reemerged in Peking among the Communist Party leadership, after speculation that he might have been purged. Mr Saifudin, aged 61, a member of the Uighur minority people in China’s far north-west, attended a cultural evening in a theatre at the Great Hall of the People marking the spring festival, China’s lunar New Year. His name was listed among the party leaders at

the hall, and television carn-ti eras then showed him;! clearly seated at the , er-j’ formance, broadcast live]! over Peking television. A report on Sinkiang’s'c Urumchi Radio on January;: 29 had made no mention of i’ Mr Saifudin. But it listed his I ' former number two, Mr] Wang Feng, as holding the; top provincial Communist 1 Party positions he had pre-; viously occupied. Mr Saifudin, who was re-1: named an alternative mem-]! her of the Communist) i Party’s politburo at the llth;i party congress last August, |i was believed to have hadu

I ties with the “Gang of! ]Four” extremist leaders, who! i were purged from political (life in October, 1976. ] This fact, and his apparent ' I disappearance from the! ! Sinkiang political scene,] i where he had been one of I China’s strongest regional! I leaders, had fuelled speculai tion that he might have fallen from favour. “We’ll just have to await; i further developments, chief! (among them the forthcoming! ] National People’s Congress j (Parliament), before we; ;make up our minds about] i his future,” said one diplo-j 'mafic analyst.